The Isle of Wight Ambulance Service is the first in the country to transfer to a new national communication system
Frequentis LifeX is a state-of-the-art control room solution used by ambulance dispatchers to communicate with ambulance crews. The system enables the dispatch team to contact the ambulance crews in enhanced ways, using voice and data methods and provides greater resilience to the service.
The new digital system went live in February and replaces the previous communications system which had reached the end of its serviceable life.
LifeX has been operating for 5 weeks and has led to a streamlined communication process, allowing dispatchers to operate more effectively and crews can respond to people using 999 and NHS 111 services more efficiently.
The Isle of Wight has fully tested the new platform and has helped the national programme move into its delivery phase and roll out to the rest of the country.
Victoria White, Head of Ambulance, has said:
“We are very proud to be at the forefront of this national project and to be the first ambulance service in the country to migrate to the new system.
“The system will undoubtedly improve the way that we respond to calls, this includes the ability to contact other partner services quickly and easily and it has a unique mapping function which is able to split emergency and non-emergency calls, helping the team to deliver care to those who need it most in our community.
Article continues below this advertisement “I would like to express my thanks to our ambulance control room staff who have taken on a new system and all the changes that come with that in their stride and continued to provide an efficient and professional service. They really have been instrumental in making this migration a success.
“It has been a privilege to work with our national colleagues at ARP and Frequentis to push forward the installation of Frequentis LifeX. The IOW is a good location to pilot systems, such as this one, and we are delighted to have been given the opportunity to lead the way.”
Andy Madge, Managing Director for Frequentis UK which is the service provider, said:
“Frequentis is pleased to be supporting the Ambulance Radio Programme with the implementation of LifeX – our next generation communications platform for Emergency Services.
“In implementing it with the Isle of Wight NHS Trust, we have been working with both national and local organisations to ensure that LifeX can deliver more efficient and effective communications for all first responders. We look forward to a long-term relationship as we support the Isle of Wight and roll out LifeX to the other Trusts around England, Scotland and Wales.”
Maybe if they got the hoards of managers, officers, clinical support officers out of the ambulance offices, they might actually start to meet targets.
Hope it hasn’t got the multitude of ‘bugs’ that most new comms systems start with.
I fervently hope it’s as good as it’s being made out to be, lives really do depend on it.
communication is one thing getting the ambulances out as and when required is different story ,if there’s not one available you ain’t getting one till there is ,you can communicate all you want
As always, it sounds great, except for one major issue … there isn’t enough ambulances on the Island to cover.
The wait period for ambulances can be hours.
There is certainly enough staff, especially during the day but unlike London ambulance office staff where every member of staff is operational when it’s busy, Isle of Wight staff refuse to go out on the road during busy times, they prefer to sit at their computers. Plus, certain responders refuse to attend category 2 or 3 calls and prefer to sit around.
I wonder if they explains why at about 0200 a few nights ago there was an ambulance out on the street with the driver out on foot with a torch apparently looking for a house. After about 5 minutes (before I had a chance to get outside to see if I could help) the ambulance had left not to be seen.